Yesterday, we informed you that Xiaomi is going to release a new technology, namely air charging. Today, Xiaomi announced its self-developed air charging technology (Mi Air Charge). This technology does not require a base. So the phone (or any supported device) can achieve a long-distance wireless charging in the hand or in the pocket. The Xiaomi Mi 11 smartphone is the first to implement this technology. Prior to the release of Xiaomi, Motorola today also demonstrated its wireless charging technology and released a demo video.
Motorola’s air charging
From the video, we can see that unlike Motorola’s technology, Xiaomi’s air charging technology doesn’t suffer from foreign objects. The company said that there is no need to put the phone in a fixed position, and it can be wirelessly charged at a long distance when playing in the hand or in the pocket.
In the case of Motorola video, the charging of the transmitter is stopped immediately when the transmitter is blocked by hand. Chen Jin, general manager of Lenovo’s smartphone business department in China, said that this is a safety setting specially developed for the health of users. It is a safety protection provided when the human body is detected at the transmitting end of the charger with a higher power.
The Lenovo executive also said that Motorola’s distance charging can be far greater than the current contact charging based on Qi technology. Plus, it can charge multiple smartphones at the same time. It has a higher degree of freedom, but also has safety performance.
Xiaomi’s air charging technology
Lei Jun introduced the air charging technology in detail on his personal public account today, and demonstrated the air charging pile at the same time. At present, Xiaomi’s air charging technology has been realized within a radius of several meters. A single device can get power at a distance of 5 watts. Not only that, multiple devices can also use this technology at the same time (each device supports 5 watts), and even foreign objects will not reduce the charging efficiency. In contrast, Motorola relies on a desktop millimeter wave transmitter to achieve directional charging with a range of 80-100 cm.
He said that this technology has 17 technical patents, and the core technology lies in space positioning and energy transmission. The self-developed air charging pile has built-in 5 phase interference antennas, which can position the smartphone in millisecond space and accurately detect the position of the phone. The phase control array composed of 144 antennas transmits millimeter waves to the smartphone through beamforming.
On the smartphone side, Xiaomi has developed its own antenna array. Among them, the ‘beacon antenna’ broadcasts position information in the space field through low power consumption. The ‘receiving antenna array’ composed of 14 antennas converts the millimeter wave signal emitted by the charging pile into electrical energy through a rectifier circuit, realizing science fiction isolation.
Not only smartphones
Lei Jun also said that Xiaomi’s self-developed air charging technology can also charge smartwatches, bracelets and other wearable devices. In the future, the living room, speakers, desk lamps and other small smart home products can realize wireless power supply, completely get rid of the shackles of wires, and truly realize the wireless living room.
Lei Jun said that Xiaomi’s self-developed space charging technology is like a sci-fi movie. And it’s quite difficult not to agree with his words.
